Fun at the Park

This is VBS week at church and Adam's 3 year old nephew Chase is coming. I am bringing him to VBS and then he is hanging out with me in the afternoons while his dad is at work. Amy, Chase, Theresa and Annie and I went to a super fun park in the area this afternoon. Theresa and Annie are in VBS and their mom is a teacher for VBS. I babysat Annie and Theresa when Annie was just a little baby!

Chase wearing cool shades on the way to the park.

Mom packed us a picnic lunch to eat there.

"You can't catch me!"

Amy and I might have loved this park even more than the kids!

We played a huge game of hide and seek.

There were a million places to hide!

Annie and Chase looking for us.

Chase and I looking for everyone else!

Another picture of the park because we voted it "The best park on the face of the earth".


Chase found Amy hiding under the fire engine!

There was a really cool rocket ship!

Theresa conned Chase into getting down on one knee and asking me, "Will you be my Auntie?"
How could I say "no"???

Look! There are pumpkins!

Adam was digging a hole to see how far down the foundation goes.
Adam watering the little garden.
The barn from the far side of the pumpkin patch.
The tall tall corn.
This cucumber is huge!
There are lots of pumpkins growing.
They are bigger every day we look at them!

This pumpkin is huge!!!
Adam liked how this little one is growing straight up in the air!

Weeding, eating, and my house

After working on grad school stuff in front of the computer all day, I decided I needed a break outside. Instead of just laying out and reading, I decided to be productive and go help Adam at his house. He was mowing the lawn and I weeded the little garden that Adam is now calling "Steph's garden"...how did I get put in charge of it??

As I was weeding, I came across a carrot that somehow found its way into the middle of the cucumbers. Since Amy said they would be edible now...and I trust her....I decided to pull it and see what happened. A carrot came out!

Adam and I both tried it. It tasted like a carrot! It was little and sweet just like Amy said!

As I kept weeding the cucumbers (that are taking over the garden) I discovered lots of little baby cucumbers growing! I didn't notice them yesterday when I took the other pictures!
When I saw the cucumbers, I ran over to the pumpkin patch, lifted up the leaves and found a little pumpkin growing too!
When he was done mowing the lawn (he did it all day yesterday and finished up today after work) he was hoeing (sp??) in between the rows of little pumpkins.

We also pulled the extra pumpkin plants in the middle rows. I pulled every 2, but Adam stuck to every other because it was breaking his heart!

I brought Adam back over by the little garden to see all that I weeded.

My nails are officially ruined, I have a blister on my hand, and 4 bug bites the size of quarters on my back alone (and you know how my body reacts so well to bug bites)...but there is definitely a sense of acomplishment in this! I still hate weeding, but when I am given a job I like to do it well and finish it. So I went up and down all 10 rows and there isn't a weed to be found!

Oh and I counted and in the whole 20 feet there are only 9 onions. But the ones that are there are healthy!

I figured with all the pictures from Adam's house, I better include my own garden too! These are my tomato plants that my friend Diane gave me for my birthday when I told her that Adam and I were going to get into gardening (she has a ginormous garden at her house). I decided to keep them at my house so I could take daily care of them!

Diane also gave me green peppers and jalapenos.
The garden on the side of my house that I am so proud of. I love to see my flowers grow!

The front of my house. My garden flag is a bit fishnagled (dad is that how you spell that?) because the lawn care people ran it over. Grrr.
I didn't want my house plants to get jealous, so I took pictures of them too. The spider plant is Filomena. She is from my friend Tracy who has had the original since college. Baby Aloe was from mom to Adam at Easter because he always wanted one. But he won't take care of it at his house, so it got to join all of my plants.
These are the rest of my house plant family. They don't have names...yet!

Farmer Hopkins' vegetables are growing!

The pumpkin plants are huge!

There are orange/yellow flowers growing all over!

They are huge flowers! We didn't know that pumpkins had such ginormous flowers!

Apparently every 6 feet was not far enough apart...there is no room to walk!

The cucumbers are growing little yellow flowers too.

The carrots are growing huge. How do you know when they are mature?

The corn is growing quite a bit. I tried to get Adam to take a picture standing next to it, but he said they aren't tall enough for that yet. Also...I know I need to weed, but it was a busy weekend and my grad class is calling my name.

Where oh where are the strawberries...?
Apparently they don't really want to grow.

One of the onions getting pretty tall. How do you know when these are done??

Busy Wedding Weekend

On Friday night, my best friend Katie married her now husband Josh. Their wedding was in Ingleside on Long Lake (near Fox Lake). They had a beautiful ceremony in a tent right off the banquet room with the reception immediately following. Katie and I went to NIU together and her and Josh met about the same time Adam and I did. They live in Aurora now, but we are trying VERY hard to convice them to move to Bartlett (I even sent her house listings from the MLS the other day!). Josh has a new rule though and says they won't move to Bartlett until we are married. I don't like that rule!

At the ceremony

Getting ready to leave the hotel

First Dance

My NIU girls

Kristin, Amanda, Katie, me

They had a get together the next day at her family's place on Fox Lake. We had fun outside and they got to open their wedding presents.

I made a shadow box for Katie and Josh with their wedding invitation and a spot for a wedding picture. Mom helped me design it and it was definitely a team effort to make it perfect!


We also enjoyed a ride on the boat!

Mr. and Mrs. Reel =)

We left Fox Lake about 3:00, drove home, showered, changed and got ready for our second wedding of the weekend. My friend Kristina married Damien on Saturday night. I have known Kristina for a couple years because she went to school with my friend Bridget. Damien and I also went to NIU together. Kristina and Damien are both Deaf Ed teachers too.

During the toasts

Kailey was there with her parents because Kristina was Kailey's teacher for many years.

Lots of dancing and drinking in one weekend!